Thursday, May 24, 2012

Report: Ohio St. may still have even more violations

Gene Smith
((ht: thelantern.com))

**UPDATE at bottom of the story**

The hits, they just keep coming.

According to a report in the Ohio State student newspaper "The Lantern", OSU athletic director Gene Smith admitted the school may have another dozen NCAA violations to tack onto the 46 that surfaced last week.

Really?

The paper...nor Smith specified the violations other that to say it wasn't known if they were primary or secondary in nature.

Among those already known, and we might add are mostly minor in nature, include one by Smith himself who appeared in a personal recruiting video for a prospect along with OSU legend Archie Griffin.

Yes, that's a violation and Smith admitted it wasn't the 1st time he's done such a video.

Read the Lantern story RIGHT HERE

Okay. While Smith and Chad Hawley of the Big 10 don't seem to think any of this is a big deal, the fact of the matter...is that it is.

Sure, we detailed some of the original 46 violations last week, which you can read RIGHT HERE. and showed that most were minor and many were just plain idiotic, they also show a bit of a pattern.

The school, the Big 10 and Smith in particular seem to think that having 40 something violations a year is minor. In some ways it is, but considering the other problems with the NCAA the Buckeyes face, this is kind of a big deal.

Yeah, the NCAA rulebook is bloated and full of silly, idiotic things that you can and can't do while recruiting, but it seems, at least on the surface the OSU either doesn't teach or doesn't concern with it. In fact Smith shrugged it off to the paper, saying its because the athletic department is so big.

Sigh.

He doesn't get it. And he is a big part of the problem. But he's the AD at a "Power School" in a "Power Conference". They will get a slap on the wrist. Both for this and for the Terrelle Pryor, tattoo-gate whole enchilada thing too.

And they'll continue doing business the way the feel like, while the smaller school will receive monster penalties...for similar...or the same infractions.

**Smith released a statement Thursday morning, apparently after realizing he put his foot squarely in his mouth. The statement read "Contrary to reports attributed to me, Ohio State athletics is not facing any major NCAA violations."

Hmmmm...wonder why Smith felt compelled to deny saying anything to the Latern?

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